Are North American Millennials better than Caribbean Millennials?

Travelling and networking with millennials all over the world has revealed stark differences between North American millennials and Caribbean millennials. It is at the SHRM Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada last year that it all made sense to me I finally connected the dots. I realized I was one of the 3 Caribbean millennials at an International HR Conference with over 20,000 millennials in attendance but why?

From discussions and frank observation I’ve summarized the reasons Caribbean don’t invest in their brand and development.

Caribbean culture or maybe the way we are socialized seems to have put us at a disadvantage from our North American peers. I sat in awe at these YouTube Celebrities and Content Creators who surrounded me and were able to make a very good living from YouTube through building and investing in their brand (camera and lighting equipment is not cheap boo) not to mention the amount of time it takes to edit ….LAWD!

Why is it that they have tapped into and continue to dominate these markets and others such as motivational speaking and career coaching and it seems like everybody in North America is doing it but we their Caribbean peers struggle to even get 1,000 views on YouTube even with similar content when our music has dominated the world for decades. Why is it that Barbados has produced the biggest superstar Rihanna but yet the Caribbean struggles to consistently get talented artist signed to these international labels.

Rio has just passed and Jamaica has completely cemented their place as the sprint capital of the world. Why is it that as Caribbean people we still see North American track and field programmes superior to our when in the past 10-15 years Jamaica has walked the walk and talked the talk.

My friends…I have concluded it is not the fact that North American millennials are more talented than we are… it is the fact that they are risk takers and more consistent than we are that beats us every time. Our culture shaming risk takers entrepreneurs and anything outside of the norm has held us back from dominating the world and competing with our North American peers. I am inspired by my fellow Combermerian Rihanna to challenge this stereotype and claim my spot as the Kevin Hart of HR.